Okay, so I was messing around trying to figure out a handicap system based on Steph Curry’s performance. It started as a stupid bar argument, you know? “Could a team win against the Warriors if Curry had to, like, dribble with oven mitts on?” Dumb stuff. But then I actually started thinking about it.
First thing I did was look at his stats. I pulled all sorts of data from ESPN and * – points per game, three-point percentage, assists, turnovers, everything. I wanted a baseline, a real picture of what he brings to the game. I spent a solid afternoon just staring at numbers, trying to find something that could be tweaked to create a “fair” disadvantage.
I considered a bunch of ideas. One was reducing his shooting range. Like, he could only shoot threes from inside the arc or something. But that felt too artificial. Another was adding mandatory turnovers. Like, he had to turn the ball over a certain number of times per game, no matter what. That felt clunky and unfair to his teammates.
- Restricting his movement (like only being able to move half court)
- Making him use a heavier ball
- Forcing him to wear ankle weights
Then it hit me: time. What if I limited the amount of time he could actually play per game? Not just bench time, but time he was actively allowed to influence the game. So, like, he could only play 24 minutes instead of 36. That felt… manageable. It still allowed him to be Steph Curry when he was on the court, but it forced the Warriors to play a significant portion of the game without him.
So, I built a simple model. I took his average stats per 36 minutes and scaled them down to 24 minutes. Then I tried to estimate how much the Warriors’ overall performance would drop with that reduced Curry-time. This involved making a LOT of assumptions about how his teammates would step up (or not) and how other teams would adjust their strategy.
The hard part was figuring out the ripple effect. Less Curry meant more opportunities for other players, but also more defensive focus on them. I ended up doing a bunch of “what if” scenarios in a spreadsheet, adjusting different variables and seeing how the final score changed.
What I found was interesting. Limiting Curry’s minutes to 24 didn’t automatically guarantee a loss for the Warriors. It made it much closer, more of a toss-up. It forced them to rely more on their bench and their other stars. It made the game less predictable, which, honestly, is what I was going for.
The conclusion? A time handicap seems like the most realistic and least disruptive way to “nerf” Steph Curry. It wouldn’t completely neuter his talent, but it would force his team to adapt and play differently. It’s still a crazy idea, but it was a fun experiment. Maybe I’ll try simulating some full games with these handicaps in NBA 2K next time.
